Mable: Here we are with the new chapter! I'll just go ahead with the story, so without further ado- Enjoy!

Can't Go Home Again

Chapter Forty-Six

The mood in the pizzeria was off. After coming back from a day off, the pizzeria was usually abuzz with a renewed vigor. Something was off today, but neither Fritz, Jeremy, nor Natalie could specifically note what it was. In fact, it wasn't until mid-day break that either of them truly realized what was happening.

The pizzeria was completely empty. The second and third party wouldn't be until the later afternoon and luck had somehow secured a brief period where there were no children wandering around. This was what initiated the mid-day break in full, allowing everyone to get a few moments to cool down. However, usually this break was taken in the kitchen or the back of the party room, but Mike had decided to step out the back door and sit on the step behind the Pizzeria, near where the Freddy van was parked.

This was weird enough as it was. Usually, Mike took his break in or around the Prize Corner. The others didn't question this as they knew it gave him and Marionette some time to converse. Instead, he had decided to randomly sit behind the Pizzeria instead. Taking this as some sort of cue, Fritz and Natalie followed him out back, shrugging it off. It wasn't as though Foxy couldn't watch the front of the pizzeria for a while and Jeremy wouldn't be back with lunch for at least a few more minutes.

"You know, I'm thinking of picking up smoking just so I have something to do on break," Fritz joked as he stepped out into the cool air and looked around for a place to either sit or lean. "Doesn't seem like much else to do out here."

"I'm the one stressed out enough to need a bad habit," Mike randomly voiced his complaint out of the blue as Natalie stepped out. Unlike them, she opened one of the van doors and sat halfway inside.

"You look a little tense," Natalie pointed out with a concerned quirk of the brow. "Is something going on?... Wait, didn't you have a date yesterday?" Fritz also looked a little more interested, but Mike quickly shot down any suspicion.

"Saturday. It went fine, we're supposed to meet up in a couple of days," Mike quickly skimmed over. He then sent a glance back at the door, almost to check that nobody was listening. "Have you noticed what's going on?"

"With you? Yeah, I think everyone noticed that something's a little off," Fritz butted in matter-of-factly. Beyond its seemingly joking tone, there was a clear concern underneath it. The technician wasn't afraid to point out the security guard's progressively silent behavior. Indeed, Mike had spent most of the day with little to say, keeping himself distracted with busywork.

"It's not with me. It's with Mari," Mike pointed out. "This thing, this cold shoulder, has been going on since yesterday. It's driving me insane." It was pretty obvious that he was ready to vent about it and hadn't had a chance to before now. "I don't know if you know what it's like to live in a house with someone clearly snubbing you, but it's not something you can just ignore."

"I know what it's like," Natalie volunteered. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything. I don't even know when this started." He gave another huff and a glancing glare towards the door, as though he expected someone to be listening in. "Yesterday he was shut up in his room for most of the day. I just thought he was busy, so it wasn't a big deal. Then, I finally manage to corner him in the hallway when he's trying to get in the closet, and he wants nothing to do with me." Mike's frustration was obvious in his voice. "And he's been dodging me since then."

"Sounds rough," Fritz sympathized. Natalie, meanwhile, jumped right in with her own suggestion.

"You said you went out on Saturday," she reminded, "do you think that this is connected to that?" For a split second, she and Fritz unintentionally made eye contact. It was good to see that they were on the same page.

"I thought about it, but he was fine before I left. I think I would've noticed something then..." Mike then shrugged it off. "But then again, who can tell? Mari never comes out and says anything, so I just have to guess until he eventually lets me in on what's up." There was more bitterness in his tone, but it was covering the harder emotions to swallow. Mike did better with frustration than trying to access the concern that lay a little deeper. It was really bothering him that suddenly the Puppet was blocking him off.

The back door opened and he, again, looked back in anticipation. Instead of whatever he was expecting, it was Jeremy carrying a couple of paper bags. He looked at the three in confusion, "…I know we had that break in, but this seems like a little too much security." He followed with a playful smile before gesturing back inside. "A kid came in with me, but I think Foxy's got it covered."

"I'll go keep watch," Fritz volunteered and passed Jeremy, taking one of the bags and thanking him for getting lunch. Then it was back to three, though a different three. Jeremy sat down beside Mike and began to dig into one of the bags, bringing out a sandwich to eat.

Natalie decided to continue the conversation with Mike. "Maybe you should try being straight with him. If you're direct, he might be more willing to open back up," she offered. "I don't know Mari as well as you do, but you two seem too close to hold a grudge. If he's that upset about something, then he's bound to tell you." Mike didn't give an immediate answer. Instead he just took one of the bags, but then held it with a lack of interest.

"I'll figure something out… Mari probably won't be able to keep this up forever. Eventually he'll need me to screw in a lightbulb or something, then he'll be forced to at least point me in its direction." With that, the conversation seemed to drop. However, the mood in the pizzeria didn't immediately change. If anything, it just became more obvious that Mike and Marionette were avoiding each other. The Puppet only left the Prize Corner when the security guard wasn't present and retreated quickly if Mike reappeared into the party room.

Things got a little easier once the second party came around. Marionette was then required to leave the Prize Corner, as he had been personally requested for the party, and Mike stayed in the room to watch as he tended to the children. It was almost a cruel joke to watch him be so kindly and act so normal with the children. Marionette had a way of lighting up a room, and yet out of the blue that had been stunted from Mike's grasp. He suddenly had no access to the warmth that he provided.

While Mike couldn't prove it, he had a feeling it involved the date as well. Louise was a sweet lady, but it was obvious that Marionette had no interest in meeting or trusting her. How this turned to him snubbing Mike didn't fully make sense, but it was still a working theory. Nothing could be confirmed or proven yet, and only once it was would be when Mike could figure out how to fix it.

Then, as though on cue, she walked in.

Mike couldn't help but be surprised when he noticed Louise walk into the pizzeria. He briefly looked to Marionette, awaiting a reaction, but the Puppet was too enthralled in entertaining the children. Believing he was distracted enough, Mike approached the female with a smile. It was somewhat a reflex, but he did feel slightly better to have a distraction. "Coming to spy on the competition?"

"Well, hello there, stranger," Louise playfully remarked with her own smile. "It's my break, so I decided to use it and come see this pizzeria you were going on about."

"I wouldn't say 'going on'. I'd say more 'extensively warning'," Mike clarified with a joking tone. He then gestured around the restaurant, "This is Foxy's. That's Foxy." He gestured directly to the fox animatronic who was currently crossing the party room floor. "That's Marionette." He now gestured to the Puppet who was now delivering gifts to the birthday child.

"Oh! It's a marionette! Very cute. Face paintings should be required for your job," Louise suggested in a further teasing way. Mike briefly cut in with a 'no way is that happening' and Louise looked around the room with further interest. "I can see why it's so popular with the kids. You don't have any competition in town; there's not really any place for kids to go anymore."

"It seems weird that nobody ever capitalized on it," Mike suggested. Indeed, after Freddy's it seemed like nobody else wanted to risk the stigma of opening a business in town.

"The closest thing is that Italian place with the playground. They've amazing dessert," she casually remarked and noticed Mike's growing amusement.

"Is that a hint?" Mike asked, briefly glancing to check how Marionette was reacting. The animatronic was now kneeling in front of who looked like the birthday child, interacting with him in some way that Mike couldn't see. He wasn't paying any attention still.

"You bet it is," Louise retorted. "If our businesses can team up and steal their recipes, we should be in the clear. I'll get the equipment, you get the person willing to break in," she playfully remarked.

"Or we can just go eat there and smuggle out dessert," Mike suggested just as easily. He could use some time out of the house, he supposed.

"That sounds good too! You're paying this time, alright? I don't make enough to go dining twice in a week," Louise pointed out. This seemed to be a proper exchange and Mike agreed. He checked Marionette again and he still didn't respond in any way, so the security guard continued arranging the plans.

He needed another night out, maybe, and Marionette didn't seem to care regardless.

Rain drummed on the roof as Jeremy reclined on his bed. He was half-awake, feeling too tired to stay awake any longer. Though right when he was at the boundary of dipping into sleep, he heard a soft tapping. Jeremy shifted in bed and looked over towards the bookcase. Daisy was still in the cardboard box that he had fashioned into a bed. Whenever Jeremy decided to sleep, the Minireena would follow his suit and curl into her bed. He didn't think that she slept, but he appreciated that she stopped staying awake all night.

It was not her though. The Magician was still out in the living room as well as Jeremy remembered leaving the TV on for him. It was something else and he rolled over and looked at the window.

There was a white face staring through.

Jeremy sputtered and flinched in the bed, staring at the face peering in at him. "What-?!" he started and cut off as his mind unclouded and he recognized it as Marionette. The puppet continued tapping on the window. "What?" Jeremy asked again, now even more confused as he reached to turn on his lamp. Instead of the faint light from the living room, the lamp light illuminated everything to a less unsettling degree, and he got out of bed so that he could approach the window. He unlocked and opened it, "What are you doing?"

"I thought I might stop in for a visit. We are friends, are we not?" It was a rhetorical question and Marionette proceeded by sliding into the window easily. "I'm sorry I couldn't make a better entrance, but I couldn't just pop inside. I've never actually been inside before." He looked around, studying the bedroom, and his eyes landed on a poster on the wall. "Oh, Foxy! That's sweet. Does Foxy know you have a poster of him?"

"Uh, I don't think we've ever brought it up," Jeremy excused as he closed the window. He noticed that the animatronic was dripping on the carpet. "How exactly did you find my house? I- I don't remember ever saying where I lived…"

"Mike once showed me. It was a long while back, but I've been meaning to visit," Marionette waved off. He was still exploring the room and avoiding Jeremy's gaze directly. Finally, he noticed Daisy's box and peered inside. "And hello to you, Daisy. You're lovely this evening." The small doll started to climb out of the box and he could see her yellow dress better.

"What about Mike? Why didn't he drive you over?" Jeremy asked in further confusion. Something about this evening just seemed odd.

"He's out tonight. That's why I came over, so that I had something to do," the puppet seemingly innocently explained. It suddenly clicked for the human.

"Oh, he's out with Louise? That… Makes a little more sense," Jeremy admitted as the animatronic turned to look towards him. His smile was the same as usual.

"Oh? You met the elusive Louise?" Marionette asked. Jeremy expected him to be indifferent, but he was a little taken aback at how his tone dipped when he said her name. He was suggesting he didn't know her, but he sounded like he knew and didn't like her. "How did you get the opportunity?"

"She was at the pizzeria earlier today." Jeremy noticed how Marionette's arms dropped and how, barely, his eyes widened. "I thought you saw her. You were over at the birthday party, but she and Mike were talking right by the front door. They must've made their plans then… Are you okay?"

"I'm fine…" Marionette responded. "I'm just… Surprised. I didn't expect her to come by. Nor did I expect that Mike would not tell me she came in," his tone was definitely shifting now. He could hear a touch of static.

"Yeah, well, I mean- Mike said you two weren't really talking," Jeremy admitted to him. "Mari, he was really worried earlier about you acting strange around him…"

"Not worried enough to stop his date, thankfully!" Marionette gave a wave of his arm as his voice held the most obviously mock-joyful and completely bitter filled tone that it could.

Jeremy was prepared to protest, but he was interrupted by a thump out in the living room. He looked towards the door before looking back to Marionette. "The Magician's out there. Let me just check on him real quick." He then sped out of the room to go see what was occurring. A few moments passed before Marionette looked down at the Minireena standing on the dresser.

It was acting different than the ones in Afton's. He didn't know if it was from being away from Ballora, but she was much more docile, and her aggression was exchanged with mischievousness. He leaned down, resting his elbows on the dresser and his head in his hands, and looked down at her. Daisy took a tentative step to the side, but then tilted her head with curiousness. Marionette began to chime the melody that he learned from Ballora and waited to see a reaction. The Minireena immediately reacted by raising onto her foot.

She began to spin daintily on the dresser, raising her arms in a delicate pose. She looked like a ballerina that would be found in a music box; spinning to the tone. It was adorable.

It was a shame that the music came back to haunt him. He could still feel some of the soothing nature of the tune, but the memories associated with its most recent exposure also returned. He could remember the few times that they danced together. It was unusual and new, strictly for fun, but now it was a hollow memory. People danced on dates; so maybe Mike was already out making memories with someone else. Meanwhile, Marionette fondly remembered being held close, and dancing with his human partner.

"What a somber end to such a joyous time," Marionette inwardly grieved. Every wistful note rung with a growing sorrow; his own music became more tragic as Daisy slowed her spin to keep pace.

Then Jeremy stepped back in. "Sorry, he knocked over a couple of things trying to get the remote. It's all fixed now… Uh… Everything okay?"

Marionette's music halted and he continued his smile as Daisy stopped and gave a bow. "I was just watching little Daisy here. She is an amazing dancer," Marionette praised before looking closer at her dress. "And if you ever need someone to make these handmade, I will. I just need the fabric provided to me." He lifted the yellow edge.

"That's… Yeah, great. She could use them… Seriously, though, what's going on?" Marionette looked to him and Jeremy looked even more concerned. "Your paint is… Running?" The puppet's hand immediately jumped to his face and he recognized the wetness. He had been crying, again, and he hadn't noticed it, again. Inwardly he swore in annoyance, but outwardly he waved it off.

"These things happen some times. The rain, maybe," Marionette lied as he hovered back. He was suddenly very uncomfortable and, under any other circumstances, he would've fled with his dignity. However, he was too determined not to return to an empty house. He couldn't stand waiting all night for Mike again.

Then Jeremy suddenly pieced together the liquid with a past memory of seeing it on Mike's shirt. "You're… You're crying. Mari, there's something wrong. You're avoiding Mike, you're crying, you're- you're here, of all places!" Jeremy was starting to get a bit firmer, but then all of a sudden, Marionette completely crumbled.

"Do you know what's wrong, Jeremy?" Marionette asked before clarifying. "Wrong is having your position as a confidant filled by someone who knows nothing about the job. Wrong is having to watching Mike waltz out of the house like everything's fine-," Marionette began this list with betrayal on his voice, but normality in his tone. Yet as he struggled to wave off this list with bitterness, he abruptly lost control of himself. "-and being forced to be quiet while you're coming completely undone!" His voice raised in volume and now the static joined it, then the room went silent.

Jeremy stared at the puppet, the puppet stared back.

Then Marionette collapsed on the floor at the foot of the bed. He pulled his knees against himself and wrapped his arms tightly around them, burying his face into his legs to hide it from the human. Jeremy stared in shock and so did Daisy. Noticing her, the human lifted her and carried her to the door, setting her on the floor.

"Go watch TV, okay? We need a minute," Jeremy explained to the small doll who tilted her head and then hurried off. He shut the door behind her before approaching the puppet again. Now standing in front of him, he crouched down in front of the striped animatronic. Sympathy was clearly on his face. "This is why you've been acting differently around Mike. It is because he's going out with Louise." Marionette shifted, but didn't respond. "Mari… Can you be honest with me? Maybe I can help."

"You can't," Marionette answered him. "This was bound to happen eventually. Mike made me feel human, and feeling human is a horrible feeling." He sounded so distraught on his voice, as though he had completely given up. "I thought that I was enough for Mike, but he needs another human to be with. One who can give him so much more than I can."

"That's not true!" Jeremy protested. "What can Louise give him that you can't, huh?"

"A normal life, for one." Marionette raised his head just a little. The tears were still pouring down his mask and he looked saddened. "Marriage, children, grandchildren, holidays on the beach, Thanksgiving celebrations with all their relatives; Louise can give Mike everything a human can. I can't give him any of that. All I can give him is all of me; my undying loyalty to him…" He shook his head. "It's not enough."

Suddenly Jeremy knew what he was dealing with. "Oh…" It was a weird situation, but it suddenly clicked. "Oh Mari, I… I'm sorry."

"No. I'm sorry," Marionette insisted. "I shouldn't have brought my problems to you. I didn't intend to; I honestly wanted a distraction… But Mike is such an integrated part of my life. Even if I didn't want to be fully invested in him, I don't have a choice any longer." He tried to wipe at his tears. "And it hurts me to be cold to Mike, but I can't help feeling betrayed. Even now he is forgetting me by being with- by being with his new lover."

"Maybe you should tell him?" Jeremy suggested.

"That would only shorten the time we have left. As I see it now, I still have until they need my bedroom for their children. Until then, I can still live with Mike and be a part of his life. After then, I will go to the pizzeria and be an animatronic again…" He looked to Jeremy, allowing him to see his face as he explained. "Mike always made me feel like I was more than just an animatronic. That my life could amount to something greater, even now with the Purple Man gone… But without Mike, it feels like I was holding out hope for nothing."

"Well… Is there anything I can do to help?" Jeremy asked hopefully. He doubted it, but he wanted to give the suggestion. "I could mention to Mike-."

"Don't," Marionette firmly commanded.

"Okay… Or you could just stay here while Mike's out. Might take your mind off things." This was Jeremy's back up idea and this seemed to be the one that worked. Marionette gave a stiff nod and curled into himself again. In the meantime, Jeremy sat down beside him to get more comfortable. It seemed like it was going to be a long night.

Then again, Jeremy wasn't too unused to long nights.

Mike was genuinely having a good time. Though he would've had a better time if he could keep his mind at the conversation at hand and off Marionette.

He felt like he was just going through the motions of a normal evening. Louise looked lovely, was happily talking about whatever came to mind, and completely fine with him being slightly distracted. She was so easy to be around and nice to talk with, but unfortunately it was just not enough to make him forget about the issues at home. Unfortunately, now was also when Mike's emotions decided to switch gear from being annoyed and confused to just being worried. He couldn't stop obsessing over what was happening at home.

What was Marionette doing now? Normally, Mike would assume he was doing one of his many hobbies, but it seemed like he had stopped those as well. Or stopped doing them in front of Mike. He hadn't even noticed him baking the cakes for today's parties. He was slowly closing the security guard off. Meanwhile, Mike smiled and made a half-hearted joke to show Louise that he was paying attention, even when he was mentally clouded by the problem at hand.

The trouble was that Mike spent most of his time conversing with Marionette, and the change of roles wasn't adjusting fully.

Because Louise was a wonderful girl, but it wasn't like she could replace Marionette. Mike didn't want to lose what relationship he had built with the puppet, not after all he had to go through to build it. Marionette was that rare event that was never supposed to happen; a friendly animatronic who was willing to live and cooperate with him. Whatever was going on, he had to straighten this out quickly.

It felt weird missing someone who he was living in the same house of. He was already deprived of the chiming, of the playfulness, of not feeling like he was walking on eggshells when being at his own home. He felt unwelcome and needed to fix this as soon as possible, but had no idea on how to do this. So, he smiled at Louise and pretended to have a good time. He pretended that he was invested in the food.

During which, he continued to circulate through his own thoughts and tried to find a solution. It wasn't looking promising.

Things hadn't gotten better by the next day. Mike and Marionette had still not spoken directly and, currently, the security guard was off in the master bedroom while Marionette was mindlessly staring at the television. Yet another of his tapes was playing, but he was barely paying any attention to it. After the night before, Marionette was feeling lither than ever. At least Mike was home and hadn't mentioned haven't another date in the near future. This was only a temporary relief, but it was more than he had felt in a few days.

The sounds of Mike's cell phone ringing on the dining room table struck Marionette. The puppet instantly teleported to the table out of reflex and went to grab the phone. Then he froze, hand poised over the cell phone, and was hit by a sudden thought.

"All I would have to do is tell her that the relationship isn't working out… It would be so easy; I already know all the inflections in Mike's voice."

A thrill welled in his chest as the phone rang again, but he made no attempt to grab it. It rung a third time and he still found his hand stuck over the phone.

"… I can't do it. What would I get from ruining this for Mike? He would never trust me again."

The phone went silent and Marionette continued to stare down at it. The familiar coldness settled in his chest as he eyed the phone warily; probably Louise calling for another date. She seemed clingy already and, while Marionette didn't have any room to talk, he saw it as a bad sign of what was to come. She could very well drive over and start banging on the door now, Marionette begrudgingly realized. In an instant this worry was suppressed by the sound of the phone ringing again. This time, Marionette answered without a hitch.

However, Marionette talked himself out of the false-Mike scheme immediately. He instead answered with his normal tone, "Hello?"

"Is Mike Schmidt there?" an older woman asked over the line. She didn't sound like she could be the girl Mike had been taking out, as she seemed a touch older than expected. "Who is this?"

"His roommate. May I ask whose calling?" Marionette heard the footsteps and looked back to Mike who entered the kitchen and leaned against the wall. There was this look in his eyes, this sort of suspicious look, maybe a little tense, and the puppet was glad he was on the phone as it looked like the look one would get before questioning. He felt meek under his gaze; he couldn't tell if it was from his recent revelations or if it was Mike's look itself.

"It's his aunt. Is he there? We really need to talk," the woman clarified.

Marionette was lightly surprised, "His aunt?" Mike's reaction was immediate; wide eyes and a vigorous waving of his hand to signal that he 'wasn't there'. Situation or not, Marionette found a touch of amusement and briefly let a smirk pass before it dropped. "I'm sorry, but he's not here right now. He just forgot his phone."

"Oh… Well, when he gets back, tell him to call me. It's important," the woman finished and after a few farewells they ended the call.

"Should I even ask?" Marionette graced Mike with the gift of a response. However, his tone returned to its distanced one, and he set the cell phone down on the table.

"I don't even know how she got my number," Mike admitted, clearly flustered. "She must have got it from my grandparents. I really hope they didn't give her my address or I am so screwed." The security guard really did look concerned about this. As much as Marionette wanted to ask, wanted to learn, wanted to do something, he still found himself resisting. He couldn't help but still feel cheated by the whole situation.

"So… I was thinking we could maybe talk a little. We haven't sat down and talked for a while," Mike randomly suggested. His shock reverted to the suspicious look. Marionette hid his own alarm as he mentally panicked, wondering if Jeremy had called and told Mike something. He soon realized that, if this was the case, Mike probably wouldn't be acting this calm about it.

The puppet regained his compositor "I'm a bit busy at the moment. Maybe if you're still home this evening," Marionette remarked, trying not to sound too bitter. He moved to go around Mike, between him and the counter, but was blocked by him.

"You're not just going to walk away this time. We need to talk," Mike firmly announced, not prepared to back down for even a moment. "You've been dodging me for days, and you weren't even here when I got home last night."

"I was at Jeremy's," Marionette quickly and briefly explained.

"Really?" Mike didn't seem to believe him. "Since when did you two get chummy?"

"Mike, you can't really expect me to just sit around and wait for you to decide to come back," Marionette quipped back. For a moment, he felt like he had some sort of power in the situation, and he wasn't going to simply back down. "It would be hypocritical for you to go out and then refuse to let me go out as well." He then added in, a little less out of his control, "It's not as though I have anything to do here."

Mike looked less than impressed and continued blocking Marionette, who started to drift out of the way. "Come on, Mari. I'm not letting you leave until we discuss this like adults."

Marionette got a brief look of amusement before suddenly vanishing. Mike knew he could've done it, but hadn't expected him to do so, and grumbled in discontent.

"And he claims he's not a kid…" Mike called back into the house as he glanced around the room. He eventually assumed that Marionette had retreated to his room. Once again, the puppet was shutting him out. Though at least they had gotten in a few more words before the animatronic had split. Along with those words, he had managed to give Mike a lead on actual answers, and he grabbed his phone before heading outside. He got into his car, almost more as an act of defiance than to not be heard, and quickly dialed Jeremy's number.

"Hello? Mike?" Jeremy's voice sounded immediately questioning. It was almost as though he had expected the call.

"Yeah, it's me, Jere. How's it going?" Mike exhaled and let his voice drop back down into weariness. His annoyance had stayed back in the house; the exhaustion was much more appropriate.

"Great! Foxy's finally clean," he explained. Jeremy had gotten stuck staying in the pizzeria after closing to clean cake off Foxy's suit once again. This wasn't too unusual, but this meant that he got it off quicker than usual. "I'm going to stick around for a while, though. Foxy wants to rearrange some of the furniture and I rather watch him do it than walk in tomorrow and see it done."

"That's probably for the best," Mike quickly responded before shifting topics. "Marionette said he was with you last night."

"You're talking again?" Jeremy sounded surprised, but also relieved. It was almost as though he was emotionally invested in this. Mike only had more evidence that he knew more about the situation and was prepared to wrestle it out of him. Thankfully, Jeremy was a lot more docile than Marionette; he would be able to talk him into a corner.

"Not exactly. I know he was over there and he's still playing games with me, so I was thinking of skipping the game of cat and mouse and going straight to you," Mike explained. He leaned back against the car seat. "So, what's he been telling you?" The other didn't respond immediately. "Come on, Jeremy. I know for a fact that he told you something."

Jeremy didn't want to say what he knew. Not just because Marionette had trusted him, and it wasn't his place to say, but because Foxy was within hearing distance. If he said something too particular, Foxy was very likely to get involved. As though things between him, Mike, and Marionette couldn't get any more tense. Jeremy wanted to avoid any sort of immediate disaster.

"Uh… He said a couple of things… He was upset, you know? You're both upset about this, which is why you two should be talking about this." Jeremy tried to distance himself from the situation.

"I already tried that. Marionette is still acting like a two-year-old throwing a temper tantrum," as Mike said this he noticed the blinds moving in the window. The puppet was looking out at him and he responded by rolling his eyes and averting his gaze. "I don't have time to play thirty questions. By then he'll have already driven me insane."

"Look, Mike-."

"Is this about Louise?" Mike demanded as he looked back to the window. Marionette was still watching. "Is this whole thing because I went out a couple of nights? He didn't have this problem before."

"I don't know, Mike, I think-… Okay, I sort of know, but I think this is more of a- I don't exactly think that one thing alone started this, but I can't-," Jeremy cut off with a huff of frustration. "Mike, Mari came over here last night and broke down in front of me. I mean, he doesn't let me see his face change and he still completely lost it. Right in my bedroom." He himself was still surprised by the whole event.

Yet Mike's reaction was the immediate opposite. That familiar vice settled in his chest. "He was crying?" Of course, he had to be crying. This just had to go from a bothersome situation to a serious one, and Mike considered any time when Marionette was distraught to be serious. He hadn't even known and he hadn't been here for him. Had something happened, such as a nightmare, and Mike's lack of attendance led to the puppet's change of demeanor towards him? It made enough sense and it explained why he would be upset about Louise.

Jeremy gave a quiet, "Yeah," and the conversation went quiet again. Mike couldn't tell what was worse; that Marionette was more upset than he let on or that Jeremy had witnessed it and he had not. They were intimate moments; Mike considered himself the rare one who got to see it, the one close enough to the puppet that he could see his 'strings'. Now Jeremy had witnessed it too… But it was neither Marionette nor Jeremy's doing that led to it. It was Mike's absence that led to whatever was going on.

For a single night, Jeremy filled Mike's role of a confidant and a protector, and Mike hated it.

"…I'm going to try again," Mike abruptly announced. "I'm going to try to get him to talk again. We've got to work this out."

"I think that's a good idea," Jeremy agreed. Then he could be heard sighing. "While you do that, I have to convincingly lie to Foxy. I think he's listening in." Indeed, the fox animatronic was now staring him down from across the room. He waved to him, "Almost done, Captain!"

"Don't get in over your head," Mike finished with the warning. "Lord knows I'm about to." He looked to the window. It seemed that Marionette had now vanished from the window and, possibly, knew what he was asking Jeremy about. Yet now the situation had changed.

Bitter Marionette giving the cold shoulder was something that Mike didn't know how to deal with. Crying Marionette, distraught Marionette, was something that Mike had seen before. He decided to change his tactic immediately because this was a different situation. He approached the front door and headed inside.

He didn't care what he had to do; he wasn't going to be replaced this quickly.

Mable: That ironic moment when two fighting people have the same core concern, that they're going to eventually be erased. You've got to love it, through heavens knows that Mike and Mari don't, and I don't think either is ready for the conversation that's about to come soon… Anyway, the next chapter will be posted next Saturday! I hope you enjoyed!